How Many Games In the NBA Finals Does It Take to Win?
Contents
How Many Games In the NBA Finals Does It Take to Win?
You may be surprised to know that it doesn’t take as many games as you might think to win the NBA Finals.
Introduction
The NBA Finals is the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, which replaced the Walter A. Brown Trophy in 1983.
How Many Games In the NBA Finals Does It Take to Win?
The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
The Minimum Number of Games
In order to win the NBA Finals, a team must first win four out of a possible seven games. That means that, in theory, it could take as few as four games to win the NBA Finals. However, in practice, it almost always takes more than four games to win the NBA Finals. In fact, in the history of the NBA Finals, only three teams have ever won in four games: the 1950 Minneapolis Lakers, the 1952 Minneapolis Lakers, and the 1957 Boston Celtics. So while it is possible to win the NBA Finals in four games, it is very rare.
The Maximum Number of Games
The maximum number of games in the NBA Finals is seven. This has happened on numerous occasions, with the most recent being in 2019 when the Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in six games. The other instance happened in 2016 when the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Warriors in seven games.
The Average Number of Games
While there have been some lopsided series, the average number of games in the NBA Finals since it went to the best-of-seven format in 1950 is six. In 31 of the 68 series played under that format (not counting the canceled 1998 Finals), the series has gone seven games.
The longest NBA Finals series was in 1950, when the Syracuse Nationals beat the Minneapolis Lakers in Game 7, 87-80. The shortest series was in 1982, when the Lakers beat the Philadelphia 76ers in four games.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it takes four games to win the NBA Finals. This has been the case since the inception of the Finals in 1947. The format has changed several times since then, but the basic premise has remained the same: four wins are required to take home the championship trophy.
